Today's brewery review is Hook Norton in the Cotswold. We visited the brewery at the height of summer and on a glorious day; perfect timing for a beer (but then when isn't).
The brewery is hidden in the hills and accessible only by some charming, winding roads. Suddenly it looms out of the horizon like Hogwarts but where real magic happens.
Admittance is by pre-booked tours only and it is advisable to plan your trip well in advance. Spaces go quickly. Ours started with a brief history of the brewery beginning from when it was a small operation in a farm house and taking us through periods of growth and development until the 1800s... or it's present condition as it's otherwise known! It sounds glib but the brewery is what I would call a working antique. Some of the machinery that is used regularly wouldn't look out of place in a museum and the brewing process has remained largely unchanged. However more of that later.
I won't go into detail about the brewing process but there were a few tour highlights worth mentioning beyond the generally informative guide. First is the steam engine that powers the whole operation. Although it was out of action the day we were there (a new part was being engineered apparently), it is still used regularly and to great effect. The mill used for milling the malt has also seen a fair few sunrises (OK the precise age escapes me but it's OLD) and is almost unmodified from when it was purchased. This theme continues throughout a lot of the brewing equipment down to the master brewer's desk and the ledgers in his office. All of the equipment is beautifully maintained and gives the whole experience an air of elegance. There is however one concession to modernity... parts of the brewery have gone digital. More specifically a digital thermometer has been installed. Don't worry, it's calibrated in Fahrenheit!
Another concession to modernity is the high-quality of the horse feed used to power the three carthorses that are used to make deliveries of beer to the local area. Hook Norton is one of only two breweries still to do this. Meeting the horses was one of the highlights of the tour as far as my girlfriend was concerned and they were wonderfully friendly and tolerant of being pawed at by random gawpers.
Back to the beer; I particularly liked the opportunities to sample the various types of malt and be talked through the various types of hops used. Even if it did result in green, sticky hands!
All this of course is a prelude to the main event... the tasting. This is done in the old malting house. First and foremost, the samples are wonderfully generous. Samples are given in thirds (and generous interpretations of that). They also offered samples of all the beers produced by the brewery rather than a paltry few drops of whatever the most common ones happen to be. Each one was described and explained with passion by our guide. A personal favourite was their summer beer haymaker. This is designed to slake the thirst of working in the fields. The intention of the brewer was that by the end of the first bottle your thirst was quenched; by the end of the second you've forgotten the back breaking effort of your toil.
A final highlight after the tasting was the upper floor of the malt house which was a beautifully curated museum relating the history of the town of Hook Norton. It's well worth a look although be warned; the stairs can be a bit of a challenge after your tastings!
Overall, it's a lovely tour and well worth doing. The settings and the process is genuinely beautiful and rounded off perfectly with an excellent tasting at the end. Well worth doing.
TFB
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